ECONOMISTS said Bangladesh has made progress defying many challenges in the last two decades. But legal loopholes, lack of enforcement of low, political corruption and poor accountability allow a class to exploit public resources. A redistributive mechanism to address economic disparity is largely absent in the economy where the poor become poorer and rich become richer. A pool of economists has said the prevailing situation may falter the country’s growth story unless the fortunate ones are adequately taxed to lift the poor and ensure social justice.
In the 21st century, the autonomous capitalist forces have sufficiently been powerful. This class has actually captured state power, as we see 70-75 per cent members of parliament are businessman. The business class which was once patronised by the state has later benefited from bank finance coming from millions of small depositors making a transfer of resources. The economic wheel is moving centring on a few groups and inclusive growth remain out of focus.
In these circumstances, achieving projected economic growth remains a challenging task for widening inequality and low tax rate and the revenue generated is insufficient for meeting costs of better education, healthcare and human resources development. Economists in a virtual conference have said 7-8 per cent growth rate for 20 years consistently is impossible without adequate investment. Besides, technological progress must be accelerated and necessary institutions built. But there remains a miss match between policy process and people’s initiatives that require quality services. When non-government organizations have shown efficiency in service delivery contributing to Bangladesh’s development and poverty alleviation, state actors are not efficient enough but remain legitimate.
The economy must be inclusive. Accountability and transparency must be ensured at every layer of public activities and social justice should be introduced. The government in most cases is the top patron of the wealthy people and the business-politics-bureaucracy nexus spoils progress and inclusive growth.
